Re: [vps-mail] odd sendmail entry in log

[Bennett Lanford <benlanford@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/4/05, Rae French <rfrench@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I just noticed this in the /var/log/messages:
> 
> May  4 21:49:48 serverid sendmail[74331]: j44Lnk79074331: Losing
> ./qfj44Lnk79074331: savemail panic
> 
> Does anyone know what this means?

It means that sendmail couldn't figure out what to do with the mail.
(It was likely trying to deliver a double bounce message to
postmaster, and there was no alias--or user--for postmaster.)

The mail isn't really lost--it is still in your mail queue (probably
/var/spool/mqueue); you will probably see a file named
Qfj44Lnk79074331 in that directory. (Notice that the lowercase initial
q (in the filename given in the syslog message) has been popped to
uppercase.)

Are you on VPS1 or 2? (Your statement that it was in /var/log/messages
implies VPS1--on VPS2 the file would normally be /var/log/maillog--but
the message kind of looks like a VPS2 log entry.)

On VPS2 there are some commands for looking at the "lost" files that
don't exist in the version of sendmail on VPS1. (Examples:  "mailq
-qL" and "mailq -Ac -qL" ) There are also some commands for
reattempting a delivery--after you correct the problem that caused the
panic in the first place (IIRC)

Ben

-- 
Bennett Lanford <benlanford@xxxxxxxxx>

There are 10 kinds of people: those that understand binary and those that don't.

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